Obama Skirts Question on 14th Amendment’s Place in Debt Talks

Jul 6, 2011 4:26 pm ET

By Jeffrey Sparshott

President Barack Obama sidestepped a question on whether the 14th Amendment would allow the federal government to issue more debt if Congress refuses to raise the country’s legal borrowing limit. Instead, he said he expects to strike a deal with lawmakers in the coming weeks.

“I don’t think we should even get to the constitutional issue,” Mr. Obama said in a town-hall meeting conducted using Twitter.

A handful of politicians, academics and pundits have floated the idea of invoking the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to avoid a U.S. default if Congress fails to raise the limit before the government runs out of borrowing room. The Treasury says the deadline is Aug. 2.

The Reconstruction-era amendment, in part, reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”